So when Liana Belli – a Marin native with an affinity and deep ties to Hawaii – was brainstorming a name for her new waxing salon – she gravitated to it immediately.

“Hawaii is very near and dear to my heart,” says Belli. “But instead of moving there, I stayed in Marin and I’ve tried to bring some of the aloha spirit here.”

Fast forward nearly four years, and the former HoneyGirl Wax Salon on East Blithedale is now HoneyGirl Beauty, a waxing salon-meets-retail destination on Sunnyside Ave. in the space formerly occupied by Palette Boutique.

“It was never a plan of mine to open my own salon,” Belli says. “But after working at and managing a variety of places over the years, I realized that I had just built up this really loyal following and I decided to give it a go. And it just took off from there.”

Belli first had HoneyGirl in a single room above Le Salon on East Blithedale Ave., and later moved it further down the block. With this latest incarnation, Belli has a slightly larger space that gives her the ability to offer "full gamut of wax services" from a “team of experienced and friendly aestheticians” and offer retail products ranging from Cosabella lingerie to all-natural makeup products, including Glo Minerals Cosmetics, True Botanicals skin care, and Coola suncare.

“My whole goal now with this new space has been to develop our brand,” Belli says. “I don’t want everyone to just come in to see me – we have a wide range of great services and products in a casual, relaxed boutique in a ‘non-spa’ where people can receive the same high quality service in an informal yet vibrant setting.”

"All The Fish In The Sea," “Full Of Hot Air” and "Reaching Across” by Ellen Levine Dodd. Courtesy images.

Bel Marin Keys artist Ellen Levine Dodd grew up in a small New England beach town near Boston, Massachusetts, attending Clark University on an art scholarship, and studying painting at the Worcester Museum School, and photography at the Worcester Craft Center. During her junior year she took a sabbatical and traveled to Europe, Israel, and the Middle East, doing photography and studying cultural differences.

Those extensive travel experienced inspired and fueled Dodd's art then, and continued to do so to this day. "Art is the magic of creating something tangible from thoughts, passions, and emotions, using color, line and forms to shape abstractions into an inspiration of visual expression," she says. "My art explores my travel experiences, adventures, observation and emotions with the goal of communicating a passion for the beauty and richness of the world and a desire to live a positive expression of life."

Dodd's work is mixed media on wood panels. "The under layers of the paintings are acrylic and gesso, with graphite, colored pencil, Prismacolor, and wax art crayons," she says. "They are overpainted with oil and cold wax, oil glazes, oilsticks, oil pastels, graphite, charcoal and wax art crayons. The frames are handmade of basswood finished with handmade shellac."

Building on the huge success of the "Summer of Love" Record Listening Night on the music of 1967, the Mill Valley Library is hosting another one, this time focusing on those first five years of the 70s between the breakup of the Beatles and the resignation of Nixon. The event is set for Tuesday, Jan. 30 from 7-9pm in the Creekside Room downstairs.

Record Listening Night returns to the , and attendees are encouraged to bring their vinyl records, play their favorite song from those eventful years, and tell everyone what it meant to them. Mill Valley Music owner Gary Scheuenstuhl will bring his formidable record collection and Jim Welte will deejay. Refreshments provided. Free.

Rebecca Nile, the Bay Area entertainer who has been bringing bubble thrills to audiences for 20 years, takes the stage at the Mill Valley Community Center on Sunday, Jan. 28, kicking off Mill Valley Recreation's annual 'Mill Valley Live' series.

Organizers promise a show that's "crazy, zany, super silly and tons of fun," as parents and children alike "follow The Bubble Lady to Bubble Land and participate in incredible musically enhanced bubble adventures," according to Mill Valley Live organizers.

A trained Shakespearian actress and professional clown, Nile brings years of experience and theatrical skills to each and every performance. She delights in playing with her audience, bringing genuine enthusiasm and joy. Rebecca has a special knack for helping shy, and children with exceptional needs, participate!

Hair stylist Eyerusalem Gettiye, at top center, along with scenes from her previous fashion shows to benefit charities. Courtesy images.

For more than 23 years, hair stylist Eyerusalem Gettiye has been making beautiful people look their best for blockbuster events like New York Fashion Week. And for many of those years, Gettiye was producing her own fashion show to benefit an array of local charities.

Gettiye, who attended the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis and runs her own Mobile Salon E, says that while breast cancer hasn't directly impacted her or her family, "I'm so lucky to be 100 percent healthy, and it's sad to see so many people who don't have that opportunity – I want to help any way I can. It's a lot of work for me to organize a fashion show event like this, but at the end, its worth it!"

Robert and Jill Romano have been all over the world, including, clockwise form top left, the Taj Mahal in India; Venice, Italy; Norway; Tahiti; and Hawaii. Courtesy images.

Asking Robert and Jill Romano to name their favorite destination is like asking a legendary music producer to name their favorite song: there are so many to choose from that the answer varies depending on the day, and there simply can’t be just one – particularly because there’s always the next one.

“There are absolutely wonderful things about everywhere we’ve been,” Jill Romanosays, diplomatically. “But there are places that touch you beyond just the destination, beyond the beautiful setting, and those are where you are able to have authentic interactions with the people that live there. Like Bali, with the nicest, kindest, gentlest people that you could ever find, where kids walk down the streets on their own safely because the whole community watches out for them. Or places where you can be out in nature, in the silence and completely focused on what’s around you – like some of the safaris that we’ve done.”

“The most recent trips tend to be the most top of mind,” she continues. “And because we have cultivated these wonderful relationships, there are one-of-a-kind experiences of getting into the Cairo Museum or seeing King Tut’s tomb when they’re closed to the public.”

Romano seems to stop herself long before she’s reached the bottom of the list in her head. While the Mill Valley couple are certainly serious travel connoisseurs, they’re much more than that: Jill Romano co-owns the agency Dimensions in Travel, which is a preferred travel agency for Backroads, the Berkeley-based active vacation company, and books travel for organizations like Guide Dogs for the Blind and Hospice By The Bay.

Robert Romano, meanwhile, sits on the travel agent advisory boards of Abercrombie & Kent and Starwood Hotels and Resorts and is a partner at Fugazi Travel. He designs luxury, adventure and resort travel for clients of the agency, which has been around since 1869, when most of its bookings were for domestic train trips and transatlantic trips on steam ships.

The pair are leaders in an industry that some thought might actually go the way of the steam ship. The travel business has been disrupted over the past 15-plus years by the Internet, putting information and tools at customers’ fingertips – and putting many travel agencies out of business. But that tide is turning a bit, Robert Romano says.

“There’s definitely a lot that people can do for themselves, transactional things,” he adds. “But you can’t do anything super special on the web – it needs contacts and relationships and a human touch. And it’s actually come full circle in many ways, in that a lot of people who were booking travel and experiences on their own have been taken advantage of by the internet and they're coming back to us. They realize we can enhance and add a lot value to what they want and we’re happy to work with them again.”

The flip side of the tech-driven disruption of the travel business is a level of freedom in which travel doesn’t disrupt the work. “With so many technological tools available nowadays, you can operate a travel business from anywhere you wish,” Jill Romano says. “We work from all over the world when we need to.”

​Jill Romano grew up in West Marin, not far from the Marin French Cheese factory, and traveled to places like the United Kingdom with her family as a child. She studied art history at the University of East Anglia in England and returned to the Bay Area to attend travel agency school. She later got a job at Dimensions in Travel, the Bay Area agency started in 1978 by a trio of Marin friends. That was in 1987, and Romano has been there ever since, buying the agency in 2007 with her fellow long-time manager, Diana Saint James.

Robert Romano grew up in Kent Woodlands in a family that ran a wine marketing & importing business, and got to travel to Europe on his parents’ business trips, as well with his “wonderful grandparents who loved to go on trips and take my brother and I with them,” he says.

He worked in the family business for a while after college, but when his father decided to retire, he needed a job, so he turned to the agency that had been booking his family’s trips for years: Fugazi. “I was lucky,” he says. “Fugazi’s like the federal government – no one ever leaves. But someone was leaving and another was out for a hip operation, so they brought me on.”

The couple met at a travel industry conference in San Antonio, Texas 18 years ago – “Jill stood out because she spoke intelligently and was close to my age,” Robert Romano says. He “purchased my engagement ring, a Tahitian black pearl, on a Paul Gauguin cruise a few years later,” Jill says.

The Romanos’ respective agencies have some overlap between them and some distinctions.

Jill and Robert Romano in Berlin, Germany. Courtesy image.

“There are a lot of similarities in terms of the customer base, and Bob’s is a bit more luxury than we are,” says Jill Romano, who notes that Dimensions in Travel has long specialized in creating trips for solo travelers, as well as ladies-only trips. “We all do everything, though. And each travel advisor brings with them a different knowledge base and expertise.”

“On the luxury side of things, we are good at knocking it out of the ballpark,” Robert Romano adds. “The value proposition compared to those that book their own hotels, for instance, is huge. Our clients can expect the kind of complimentary breakfasts and room upgrades that come with an agency that has great, long-standing relationships.”

The couple also co-hosts trips occasionally, including an ocean sailing trip and a river trip this fall.

As with any service-based industry, they both have plenty of stories to share, from the family that wanted the bungalows with the best views of a nearby mountain and needed the plunge pools drained and covered so their young children wouldn’t fall in – despite their being other bungalows without the pools – to the client who started booking a trip with Jill, who then realized that the client was also booking the trip with Bob. “We decided to invite him over to figure it out over a glass of wine,” Jill says with a laugh.

When the conversation shifts to the one place that they haven’t been yet and are dying to visit, the replies are brief.

Having tackled “Annie,” “Sound of Music” and “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” over the past three years, the Mill Valley Middle School’s Cabaret is ready to head down the Yellow Brick Road, diving into the world of Dorothy, Toto, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz – with some creative twists and turns.

The MVMS Cabaret has a 70-person, multi-grade cast and 30-member crew that promises to surprise you with their interpretation of the classic show.

The 411: The Mill Valley Middle School’s Cabaret's production of The Wizard of Oz is set for March 2 @ 7:30pm, March 3 @ 1pm and March 4 @ 1pm. MVMS Gym, 425 Sycamore Ave. Tix $10-$35. MORE INFO.

Equator Coffees co-founder Helen Russell is fond of saying that the people who grow coffee all over the world "link us right to the cup and how we tell that story."

The Bay Area coffee juggernaut is set to showcase another one of those stories at its 2 Miller Ave. shop with a coffee tasting featuring Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Bay Area based, Yemeni-American coffee entrepreneur. Alkhanshali is the subject of The Monk of Mokha, best-selling author Dave Eggers' latest book, which comes out on Jan. 30.

The event, set for Friday, January 19, 9-11am, features Alkhanshali, the founder and CEO of Port of Mokha coffee, brewing and serving his coffee while customers ask him about his story, the book and his coffee. Equator will be selling a few bags of the coffee and will be releasing it in February. A camera crew from ABC7 will also be on handing filming a segment about Equator and Alkhanshali.

The book charts Alkhanshali's journey to reawaken his ancestral homeland to its coffee legacy. Eggers uses that story to dive into a "history of coffee and its origins, growth, and development as a mass commodity and then as a niche product," as well as "an adventure story of civil war in a foreign country; and a most improbable and uplifting success story," according to a recent review of the book by Kirkus.

Watch the CBS Sunday Morning segment below to learn more about Alkhanshali.

Event organizers pointed to Redwood Credit Union's staff providing more than "2,000 hours of volunteer support at 115 events supporting local nonprofits and community organizations in Marin, including the Marin/San Francisco Food Bank, Novato Human Needs Center, Marin YMCA, Conservation Corps of the North Bay, and many others. RCU regularly hosts “Bite of Reality” financial events at local high schools to help teens learn important real-world money management skills—more than 3,000 Marin students benefited from these programs. In addition, RCU supports SchoolsRule—a coalition that provides literacy, technology, arts and health education to all Marin public school students—through a unique program that generates a donation for every RCU credit or debit card transaction made by a Marin County Member, providing more than $30,000 to support SchoolsRule programs annually."

“RCU is extremely honored and humbled to receive this award,” said Matt Martin, Vice President of Community and Government Relations for RCU, who accepted the award at the event. “Giving back and supporting the well-being of our local communities is an integral part of who we are as an organization, and we are continually inspired by the amazing spirit this community has for giving and helping people in need.”

Spend a few minutes downtown with lifelong Mill Valley resident Cliff Waldeck and you'll be reminded that there are very few people here who don't already know him and want to catch up with him.

That's because Waldeck has been a nearly ubiquitous presence in Mill Valley, from his two terms on the City Council and a stint as Mayor to his role as a go-to office supplies and business products salesperson for an array of companies over the years. For the latter, while the business name has changed, Waldeck's jovial, personal touch hasn't.

Waldeck recently left Blaisdell's Business Products and for business products Indoff, a "one-stop shop" that has been in business for nearly 50 years. Waldeck, who recalls that he got his start in the business at age 11 when joined his father during the summer and school breaks at the family business, Waldeck Office Supplies, in downtown San Francisco, recently spoke to Indoff about the transition.

Shawn Martin of Refined Services Inc., at center, helped to deliver new shoes, books and stuffed animals to all 24 students in the pre-kindergarten class at San Rafael’s Laurel Dell School. Courtesy image.

For Bloom, the 18-year-old, San Rafael-based nonprofit formerly known as Image for Success, every day is a day of giving. The organization has a direct, tangible impact on people’s lives at a critical moment, providing free wardrobes and life skills training to men, women and families transitioning to a life of self-reliance and looking for a job, whether it’s a person just released from prison, someone recovering from substance abuse or a victim of domestic abuse seeking independence.

So it's no surprise that during the holiday season, Bloom's giving continued. Spearheaded by Mill Valley resident and executive director Sherene Chen, Bloom partnered with sponsors Red Tower Capital, Shawn Martin of Refined Services Inc. and Christine Lindner to deliver new shoes, books and stuffed animals to all 24 students in the pre-kindergarten class at San Rafael’s Laurel Dell School. The items were donated by Kohl’s Cares.

Bloom typically adopts two classrooms per year but was able to help this third class in 2017 due to the funds raised through its first holiday fundraiser. Martin of Refined Services Inc. accompanied Bloom on the delivery to Laurel Dell, getting a chance to experience the warmth and gratitude directly from the students by passing out the shoes and reading them a story.

Scenes from wedding at the Mill Valley Community Center. Courtesy image.

The Mill Valley Community Center is set to be the center of the Bay Area wedding universe in February when Mill Valley Recreation hosts its 2nd Annual Marin Wedding Fair, giving engaged couples a chance to get their wedding planning started by browsing an array of options for the critical components of their big day.

The event, set for Saturday, February 10, 11am-4pm at the Community Center, will gather event planners, photographers, florists, caterers, bridal fashion designers, makeup artists, entertainers and much more. Dozens of exhibitors turned out for the inaugural event in 2017 to showcase their ideas for a perfect event, including Piazza D’Angelos, Dolls and Dandy, Mill Valley Flowers, Acqua Hotel, Outdoor Art Club and All Seasons Catering, among many more. Stay tuned for the full list of exhibitors.

Fundraising drive was propelled by a $5,000 grant from the Outdoor Art Club and dozens of donations from film screening attendees.

At the close of ​the fourth season of the free 2017 Movies in the Park series, which drew more than 1,000 residents and families to the gorgeous redwood grove of Old Mill Park for outdoor screenings of classics like The Princess Bride to newer hits like Moana, the feeling among series organizers was simple: let's make this thing bigger and better than ever.

On the heels of a successful fundraising campaign to raise enough money to purchase all of the equipment required to produce the series on their own, Mill Valley Recreation,the Mill Valley Chamber and the California Film Instituteare doing just that. The 2018 Movies in the Park series will now stretch across five screenings from June through October.

"Watching the Movies in the Park series blossom into such a popular, cherished community event has been fantastic," says City of Mill Valley Arts and Recreation Director Jenny Rogers. "Our collaboration on this series with the Mill Valley Chamber and the California Film Institute has been incredible – the City simply could not do it without the generous support of our awesome partners. Looking forward to making it bigger and better than ever in the years ahead."

​The fundraising campaign, which ranged from individual donors at each screening to donations made to via theEnjoy Mill Valley Fund created by the Chamber's board of directors in 2016 to raise money for local civic projects, was propelled by a $5,000 grant from the Outdoor Art Club, the 116-year-old organization that has been one of Mill Valley's backbones since its inception and remains so today.

"It is our pleasure to be able to contribute to the Mill Valley community through our Outreach Grants, and in particular Enjoy Mill Valley’s “Movies in the Park” free family films program," says Susan Johnson, the OAC's board president. "The members of the OAC view our local parks as highly valued community assets that bring people together to enjoy the beautiful outdoor environment of Mill Valley – the founding purpose of the Outdoor Art Club."

"We've been thrilled at the response from the community for the free Movies in the Park series, and we're excited to have raised enough funds to expand it and make it sustainable for years to come," adds Mike Son, the Chamber's board chair. "We're grateful to the Outdoor Art Club for this significant grant and to the larger community who contributed to this campaign with their donations."

Movies in the Park attendees can expect more screenings, a broader range of films and possibly some additional venues. The final screening of the series in October will continue to coincide with CFI's 41st Mill Valley Film Festival.

"It's been a joy for us to participate in making this outdoor movies series happen, and having one screening occur during our annual Mill Valley Film Festival has added yet another community benefit to our ever-growing celebration of cinema," says Jeromy Zajonc, MVFF's director of operations. "We're grateful to the Chamber for spearheading this fundraising campaign and look forward to co-presenting great films outdoors this year and for years to come."

The 411: Stay tuned for Movies in the Park series details in the coming weeks.

In 1984, when Aran Moore co-founded the Marin Solar business that would eventually become Sun First Solar in San Rafael, an industry that is now a global phenomenon was barely a blip, even among energy industry geeks.

One of the reasons for that growth is the ever-growing financial benefit to go solar, and the ever-shrinking time for customers to obtain a return on their solar investment, says Sun First Solar CEO Kim Fink.

“Panels are constantly getting more and more efficient,” she says. “As a result, the people who are buying solar were initially focused on the environmental benefits and now are doing it for that reason but also because it makes financial sense. People now are also focused on cutting their expenses, with most seeing a return on their investment within around five years, and that’s been a huge change.”

But with all that searing industry momentum comes one significant hurdle: an increasingly crowded field of competitors, Fink says.

“We’re likely the oldest solar company in the Bay Area, period,” she says. “When he first started, there were very few people doing it, and he was going door to door to inform and educate people about what it was. And over the years, we’ve seen a lot of startups emerge. But we’ve stood the test of time.”

Fink says Sun First Solar’s 34 years in the business is a testament to its “one-stop shop” approach. That means that while an array of businesses offer services within one slice of solar service, such as site audits, permitting and cost-benefit analysis, Sun First covers the entire process from start to finish, and promises an approximately five-year return on investment for its customers.

That’s especially important on two fronts, Fink says. “You have to have an extremely knowledgeable staff who know how to install effectively on all types of roofs, particularly to manage the increasingly larger demand for electricity in each home these days,” she says.

Fink says Sun First stands out in the crowd because of its longstanding in-house installation team, which is often sought by third party providers to do installations. “So many companies are subcontracting out everything and not wanting to employ their own crews because it’s labor intensive and costly.”

That team is the backbone of the company, Fink says. Sun First Solar’s 24 employees regularly go on outings together, from rafting on the American River to bowling later this week. “Not because they have to but because we all want to,” she says.

As its gears up for its 2018 production of Mamma Mia! in May and June, the Mountain Play Association is bolstering its promotional efforts by hiring Cindy Lang as its first marketing director.

Lang has spent more than 25 years in marketing communications and public relations, starting in the music industry at Atlantic Records in Los Angeles and including stints at arts, nonprofit and event organization. Starting in 2002, Lang's CidLang Media has led communications efforts for the likes of the San Francisco International Film Festival, SF Sketchfest, SF Green Film Festival, the inaugural Sausalito Film Festival and more. Lang can be found on local stages both singing and performing improv comedy and also runs the annual NorCal Beaglefest, a gathering of hound dogs and their people in Sausalito. She lives in Mill Valley with her two beagles.

Mountain Play Association Executive Director Sara Pearson says that Lang will be responsible for designing, creating and executing a multi-faceted communications campaign in support of Mountain Play’s programs, and will also act as a Mountain Play representative to the community.

“I am so incredibly thrilled to join the Mountain Play team – it’s a dream come true for me,” Lang says. “My family has been making the pilgrimage up Mt. Tam for this iconic theatre experience for four generations and I am very excited to be able to use my expertise to help expose more people to this inimitable gem of an experience.”

The 411: Mamma Mia! opens the Mountain Play's 105th season on Sunday, May 20, and continues on May 27, June 3, June 9, June 10 and June 17 at the Cushing Memorial Ampitheatre on Mt. Tam. MORE INFO.